Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Living in the Sierra Foothills, we are surrounded by a lot of natural beauty. Some of it is very subtle - like the tiny tiny wild flowers we have on our serpentine property every year. But some of it is very hard to miss, like the Yuba River that runs through the area. It's not just the spectacle of large boulders and dramatic vistas, the colors of the water, the rocks and trees area really quite unique.

This year at the County Fair, there is a category in the "Wool" division for finished items that are County Inspired. So using the Yuba as my inspiration, I wove towels with these colors, in the same way I have been making the Calendar towels.

The threading was an irratic point twill (eg., 8-pt, 3-pt, 24-pt, etc.) to mimic the sometime irratic behavior of the river. Each towel was woven with the 1-1-1-1-2-3 tie-up and either as a straight treadling, a straight point, tromp as writ or as rosepath treadling. The last was 1 ->8, 1, 8 -> 1.

Here is some detail of the different treadling sequences.

8-Point Treadling

Tromp as Writ

Straight Treadling

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The detail is rather small, but you might get an idea of how they look, especially in the ones with the darker weft. The one I am submitting to the Fair has a silver weft, woven as threaded.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

I am scheduled to participate at a craft fair in a few weeks and I'm working to get more things finished. The latest scarf is dried and ready to have the fringe twisted.

The warp is a variegated (fall colors) cotton silk blend and the weft is a solid red-orange acrylic/cotton blend.
The structure is a 2/2 point twill that is a little irregular. I thought it would make it a little more interesting. This yarn was a little heavier than I've been using. I sett it at 8 epi.

I have some more sock weight variegated yarn that will be headed to the loom in the next few days.